Engineer IMI buys in US for £42m

ENGINEERING group IMI has expanded its merchandising systems business with the $66m (£42.5m) acquisition of DCI Marketing, a point-of-sale design, product development and marketing firm based in Milwaukee.

The group recently disposed of its copper fittings business in a £65m deal as part of a restructuring programme designed to take it out of low-margin commodity businesses and into more profitable areas.

It hopes DCI, which had sales of $90m and an operating profit of $7m in 2001, will boost value to its customers in the automotive, technology and packaged goods markets.